title: Inducible and selective erasure of memories in the mouse brain via chemical-genetic manipulation.
abstract: Rapid and selective erasures of certain types of memories in the brain would be desirable under certain clinical circumstances. By employing an inducible and reversible chemical-genetic technique, we find that transient alphaCaMKII overexpression at the time of recall impairs the retrieval of both newly formed one-hour object recognition memory and fear memories, as well as 1-month-old fear memories. Systematic analyses suggest that excessive alphaCaMKII activity-induced recall deficits are not caused by disrupting the retrieval access to the stored information but are, rather, due to the active erasure of the stored memories. Further experiments show that the recall-induced erasure of fear memories is highly restricted to the memory being retrieved while leaving other memories intact. Therefore, our study reveals a molecular genetic paradigm through which a given memory, such as new or old fear memory, can be rapidly and specifically erased in a controlled and inducible manner in the brain.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Institute of Brain Functional Genomics, Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, MOE & STCSM, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Huimin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.forename: Shuming
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: L Phillip
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Joe Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Tsien
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D054732:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase Type 2 / Q000235:genetics*; D002415:Cats; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic / Q000235:genetics; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000379:methods; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000628:therapy; D013997:Time Factors; D015854:Up-Regulation / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D054732:Calcium-Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase Type 2